Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture Online

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Khurbn
(2,816 words)

Yiddish-language Holocaust literature belongs to the earliest of the genre and exhibits specific characteristics. For instance, the extermination of European Jewry was named khurbn (“loss,” “destruction”) in Yiddish – a designation that can be traced back to the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem (586 BCE and 70 CE).

1. Introduction

The terms Holocaust (from the Greek holokaustos, “entirely consumed by fire”), Shoah (Hebrew for “catastrophe”) and khurbn essen…

Cite this page
Caplan, Marc, “Khurbn”, in: Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture Online, Original German Language Edition: Enzyklopädie Jüdischer Geschichte und Kultur. Im Auftrag der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig herausgegeben von Dan Diner. © J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart/Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland 2011–2017. Consulted online on 30 September 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2468-8894_ejhc_COM_0402>
First published online: 2017
First print edition: 20200106



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